A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered a temporary forfeiture of 23 properties linked to the former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Force (PRTF), Abdulrasheed Maina.
The judge, Folashade Ogunbanjo, gave the order, yesterday while ruling on a motion filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The EFCC in the suit had urged the court to order the temporary forfeiture of the properties linked to Maina
The anti-graft agency also sought an order of the court to publish an advert on the properties in a national daily, to enable anyone who has any reason they should not be finally forfeited to the Federal Government to come forward with proof.
The EFCC supported its motion with a 30-paragraph affidavit which it brought pursuant to Section 17 of the Money Laundering Act.
Delivering her ruling on the motion, Mrs. Ogunbanjo-Giwa granted the EFCC’s prayers.
She directed the applicant to publish the order in a national newspaper to enable interested parties to show why the properties should not be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.
She also ordered the EFCC to return to the court on November 19 for mentioning the case.
According to the EFCC, the temporarily forfeited properties are situated in Kaduna, Borno, Sokoto and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Recall that Maina, as chairman of the PRTF, was on a mission to save the pension schemes, particularly the most troubled Police Pension Fund. So, in 2012, he was charged with the onerous responsibility but unfortunately, when eyebrows were raised about the suspicious activities of the PRTF, a famous auditing firm, KPMG, was contracted to conduct a forensic audit of the Police Pension Funds. The finding was that the task force mismanaged hundreds of millions and illegally moved billions between banks. The audit report alleged that Maina defrauded the Police Pension Fund up to the tune of N21 billion.
The audit report was corroborated on March 8, 2012, by a Deputy Commissioner of Police and assistant chief accountant of the Police Pensions, Toyin Ishola, who told a Senate Committee on Establishments that Maina committed any fraudulent acts in the three months he spent in the Police Pension Fund. Ishola said:
“Within the period, the chairman used N240 million to capture the biometric data of 20 retirees. He opened three bank accounts within three months. There was N8 billion in Fidelity Bank, N3 billion in United Bank for Africa and N10 billion in the First Bank, Maitama.”
Following the revelations, the chairman of the Senate Committee then issued a warrant of arrest on Maina and the EFCC subsequently declared him wanted in 2015.
Consequently, Maina went into hiding but surprisingly; resurfaced in October 2017 after the PDP government was defeated by the APC in the 2015 general election.
